Posthuman Blues

Neuropsychology and Psychosis in 'A Scanner Darkly'

By the nature of his job, the novel's protagonist is in the unenviable position of never feeling entirely grounded in a single identity, a feeling exacerbated by the fact he is frequently required to view himself in the third person when watching surveillance tapes. By this literary device, Dick manages to capture the feeling of existential detachment that appears in many of the descriptive accounts of psychosis, reflecting the original sense of Eugene Bleuler's 'schizophrenia' (meaning literally, 'split mind'). Recent studies on the phenomenology of psychosis show similar striking parallels. Stanghellini's (2004) recent book captures both the psychotic state and the protagonist's dilemma with equal clarity, when he describes the breakdown of self-consciousness . . .

(Via The Anomalist.)

I can only describe this "breakdown of self-consciousness" as a sort of existential displacement, as if your body is a telerobotic emissary. The mind's influence seems to emanate from nowhere in particular; the result is a powerfully frightening sense of duality that fades with its own inexplicable volition.